Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

By Mike Walker. In September 1938 Eric and Eileen travel to Morocco for his health. In Marrakech Eric imagines a meeting with Georges Kopp. With Joseph Millson and Lyndsey Marshal

By Mike Walker
The second of four plays featuring episodes in the life of Eric Blair.
In September 1938, Eric and Eileen Blair leave London for Marrakech. He is hoping that the climate will be good for his health, and that he will be able to complete 'Coming Up for Air' a novel that examines, among other things, the nature of England. But the bruising reception he received following the publication of Homage to Catalonia is troubling Eric. And both Eric and Eileen are still feeling guilty about the fate of one of their Spanish Civil War comrades, Georges Kopp. In the summer of 1938 Kopp had just been released from prison. In Marrakech, Eileen falls ill, and Eric dreams of England, and of Kopp.
Eric Blair... Joseph Millson
Eileen Blair... Lyndsey Marshal
Georges Kopp... Ewan Bailey
Tommy... Paul Stonehouse
With Ben Crowe and Will Howard
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer

Of course there is no real George Orwell - it was the pen name of Eric Blair - but he was a writer and political commentator who is very hard to pin down. Ever since his early death in 1950, he has been at one and the same time the darling of some on both the left and the right of British politics - whilst being reviled by others. For all the beautiful simplicity of his writing and storytelling Orwell/Blair is a complex mass of confusions - an anti-establishment, pro-English, ex-Etonian ex-policeman and socialist, who was ardently anti-authoritarian. He was as anti-fascist as he was anti-communist, a former Spanish Civil War soldier who was anti-war but pro the Second World War, and so on and so on.

44 minutes

Last on

Tue 21 Jan 2020 14:15

Joseph Millson and Lyndsey Marshal as Mr and Mrs Blair

Joseph Millson and Lyndsey Marshal as Mr and Mrs Blair
Production photograph taken whilst recording a scene from Dreaming in Studio 60A

Credits

Role Contributor
Eric Blair Joseph Millson
Eileen Blair Lyndsey Marshal
Georges Kopp Ewan Bailey
Tommy Paul Stonehouse
Actor Ben Crowe
Actor Will Howard
Writer Mike Walker

Broadcasts

  • Mon 4 Feb 2013 14:15
  • Tue 21 Jan 2020 14:15